It is known to feed an elevationally adjustable gun from a magazine. Known magazines have been mounted on the gun to rotate with it. A disadvantage of such mounting is a significant increase in the rotating weight of the gun. This weight places additional load on the gun trunnions and increases the moment of inertia so that elevational rotation is more difficult.
A problem with mounting the magazine at a station off the gun is that the loading assembly for the gun can move with respect to the magazine as the gun rotates in elevation. This relative motion complicates the transfer of ammunition from the magazine to the gun.
A problem with designing an ammunition feeder having a chain and other parts moving to accommodate a moving gun is that rotation of the feeder and its chain changes the tension or slack in the chain. Taking up the slack in such an adjustable system is not readily performed by springs, since they cannot maintain sufficient tension while drawing the chain a considerable distance.
Accordingly, there is a need for a feeder system which can transfer ammunition from a stationary magazine to the loading assembly of an elevationally rotatable gun in a simple and effective manner.